As One
1 Corinthians 12:12-31
Here we are coming out of the coldest week of the year, meteorologically speaking, so I thought I would offer a few pointers for keeping warm in church:
Rush to the front of the church to avoid the draft near the back doors.
Invite your neighbors and friends and sit 10 people to a pew.
Seat yourself near the pulpit; much hot air is emitted from that area.
Fuss and fume when you don’t like what the preacher says.
Wear thermal underwear (in the appropriate liturgical colors). We won’t ask you to prove this!
Wait for an unfamiliar hymn, and then watch the sparks fly!
Let Holy Spirit fill you; warming your heart and body.
When the people of God come together as one, it is an amazing and warming experience.
As I told the children this morning, today’s scripture is one of those that you have to read with a sense of irony and humor. It is not irreverent to laugh at what Paul is telling the Corinthians because he was trying to use humor to make his point. It was meant to show the silliness of the logic being used by those who were separating themselves from the community over disagreements or theological differences. From what he has written in the two letters to the Corinthian church we get a glimpse into a lively, spirit-filled, opinionated, dynamic and diverse congregation. They were figuring out how to be church together and they were figuring out how to be one. There were divisions over eating meat offered to idols, over figuring out what healthy sexuality looked like, marriage, how to do communion, spiritual gifts, how to understand resurrection, forgiving each other and generosity. And we thought we were making it up as we went along in MCC! No. Anything we experience as a church is nothing new. These are the same struggles that any lively, spirit-filled, opinionated, dynamic and diverse congregation goes through.
When we pay attention, we catch glimpses here and there of what it is like to be one. This past week Keith let us know that Roger is coming to the end of his struggle with cancer. It was almost like this wave went out through the congregation as people paused to hold Roger and Keith in their hearts and offer ways to be present with them. When one suffers, we all suffer. I saw the same thing happen when Terri told us about her sister’s illness or Della related Danny’s struggles. It wasn’t something that any machine could measure but spiritually it was palpable. If we pay attention, we can sense it happening, before something else distracts us back to our routine.
Being one is not about agreeing on issues, sharing political views, attending the same worship service, coming from a common background or having similar faith journeys. It is a choice… to open one’s life to a community of faith (with all of its ups and downs) as one’s own – to somehow understand in the depths of our spirits that being part of what God is doing in a larger context is preferable to being on the journey alone. I can contribute my gifts, insight, love and passion as part of a larger movement. There are lots of role models to show us how not to be one.
Patrick Lencioni’s, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, discusses five important markers that highlight, I would say, what hinders the ability of a community of faith from becoming one and destroys the possibilities for the presence of God to move in us and through us.
• Absence of trust: Developing space where honesty and vulnerability are welcome is the foundation to creating community. If we can’t share our lives with each other, we won’t be able to share mission. I know. It’s hard to trust. We all have many examples of how people have let us down. We know how we have let others down in the past. Trust is not something that happens magically. It is built on the hard work, honesty and vulnerability we offer to each other as gifts.
• Fear of conflict: Conflict isn’t bad. Conflict simply is. It is the result of non-robotic human beings grappling with possibility and unknowns and fear. It shows the dynamic nature of multiple views and insight. The key is in how we handle conflict. Do we use it as an opportunity to learn and to build a new bond of trust or do we use it fortify our stony walls of separation?
• Inability to commit: With any community of faith, decisions must be made – direction must be chosen. To go in a direction together as a community of faith means that there will be other directions that we don’t go. Once a decision has been made, it takes all of us coming together to make it work. Without buy-in, a decision wasn’t actually made.
• Avoidance of accountability: If the cause we’re supporting with our gifts – time, talent, treasure – is worthwhile, then why wouldn’t we value accountability? It’s the natural result of trust and commitment. Although it may not always feel this way, being accountable to someone is the best safeguard any of us have for staying true to our values.
• Inattention to results: In whatever endeavors we enter as a community of faith, we need to ask ourselves if we did what we believed God wanted us to do? If not, how do we improve next time?
Lencioni has certainly identified what makes communities of faith miss experiencing that amazing sense of being one. And in the process shows us what it takes to learn this spiritual discipline together – trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results.
Being one is not always a warm fuzzy. The Corinthians were a handful because they were a lively, spirit-filled, opinionated, dynamic and diverse congregation. And so are we. There are certainly those times in all of our lives when we might think to ourselves, “I’ve had enough. People make me crazy and I make people crazy so I’m going to go sit on the side of a mountain somewhere and let the rest of the world go to…” But then you remember those worship services where the presence of God was so powerful or the times when folks gathered around you during your grief or the care shown you by friends or the things you learned from unexpected people who inspired you and hopefully you realize that being part of a lively, spirit-filled, opinionated, dynamic and diverse community of faith is exactly what you needed to be whole… drafts, sparks, hot air and all.
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com Me and My Band, January 2010.